Esperion Therapeutics, Inc. (NASDAQ:ESPR) Short Interest Up 6.8% in April

Esperion Therapeutics, Inc. (NASDAQ:ESPR) was the target of a large growth in short interest in April. As of April 30th, there was short interest totalling 19,870,000 shares, a growth of 6.8% from the April 15th total of 18,600,000 shares. Currently, 11.8% of the company’s stock are sold short. Based on an average daily trading volume, of 6,820,000 shares, the short-interest ratio is presently 2.9 days.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of equities analysts recently issued reports on the company. HC Wainwright reiterated a “buy” rating and issued a $16.00 target price on shares of Esperion Therapeutics in a report on Wednesday, May 8th. Needham & Company LLC reissued a “buy” rating and set a $8.00 target price on shares of Esperion Therapeutics in a research report on Tuesday, May 7th. Finally, StockNews.com raised shares of Esperion Therapeutics from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, May 9th. Three analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, two have assigned a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Esperion Therapeutics has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $9.33.

Institutional Trading of Esperion Therapeutics

Hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the business. Bayesian Capital Management LP purchased a new stake in shares of Esperion Therapeutics during the 1st quarter valued at $137,000. Bellevue Group AG grew its position in Esperion Therapeutics by 136.5% during the first quarter. Bellevue Group AG now owns 9,944,064 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock valued at $26,650,000 after buying an additional 5,739,800 shares during the period. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its holdings in Esperion Therapeutics by 71.8% during the first quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 8,826,546 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock worth $23,655,000 after buying an additional 3,688,796 shares during the last quarter. Tocqueville Asset Management L.P. bought a new stake in Esperion Therapeutics in the first quarter worth about $107,000. Finally, State Board of Administration of Florida Retirement System purchased a new position in Esperion Therapeutics in the first quarter valued at about $50,000. 47.39% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Esperion Therapeutics Price Performance

Shares of ESPR stock traded up $0.20 on Thursday, hitting $2.50. The stock had a trading volume of 6,569,435 shares, compared to its average volume of 7,003,291. The business has a 50 day moving average of $2.28 and a 200 day moving average of $2.12. Esperion Therapeutics has a 12-month low of $0.70 and a 12-month high of $3.40. The stock has a market cap of $473.65 million, a price-to-earnings ratio of -2.47 and a beta of 0.89.

Esperion Therapeutics (NASDAQ:ESPR) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, February 27th. The biopharmaceutical company reported ($0.50) EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of ($0.53) by $0.03. The firm had revenue of $32.25 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $26.84 million. During the same quarter last year, the business posted ($0.76) EPS. As a group, research analysts expect that Esperion Therapeutics will post -0.17 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Esperion Therapeutics Company Profile

Esperion Therapeutics, Inc, a pharmaceutical company, develops and commercializes medicines for the treatment of patients with elevated low density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL-C). Its marketed products include NEXLETOL (bempedoic acid) and NEXLIZET (bempedoic acid and ezetimibe) tablets that are oral, once-daily, non-statin medicines for the treatment of primary hyperlipidemia in adults with heterozygous familial hypercholesterolemia or atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease who require additional lowering of LDL-C.